Organisational climate and behaviour as facilitators

INTRODUCTION

Organizational climate[1] comprises of mixture of norms, values, expectations, policies and procedures that influence work motivation, commitment and ultimately, individual and work unit performance. Positive climate encourages, while negative climates inhibits discretionary effort.

Organizational climate refers to the quality of working environment. If people feel that they are valued and respected within the organization, they are more likely to contribute positively towards the achievements of the goals.

Creating a healthy organizational climate requires attention to the factors which influence employee’s perceptions, including the quality of leadership, the decision making processes and whether the efforts of employees are recognized and rewarded.

Organizational climate has a major influence on human performance through its impact on individual motivation and job satisfaction. Although, Organizational climate is a descriptive term and different from concept of job satisfaction[2].

Individuals in an organization have certain expectations and desires. The fulfilment of these expectations and desires depends upon their perceptions as to how the organizational climate can address them. Thus organizational climate provides a type of work environment in which individuals feels satisfied or dissatisfied. Since satisfaction of individual goes a long way in determining his efficiency, organizational climate can be said to be directly related with his performance in the organization.

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METHODOLOGY

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In view of evolving socio-economic scenario & increased stress levels within the army, is there a need for changing the organisational climate of a soldier? If so, then what roles can effective military leadership play in enhancing the organisational climate?

JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

In the recent times, the socio-economic changes in the society, crass materialism, the breakdown in the joint family system[3], erosion of moral values, a lack of empathy in the governing system and increasing employment of army in low intensity conflict have contributed to the woes of the soldier.

The growing news items on the high number of suicides[4] and soaring stress levels[5] within the armed forces has thrown the spot light on to us. It has forced us to sit up, take note and embark on an internal review of organisational climate prevailing in the armed forces. In addition to these spates of suicides, the increasing job attrition rates and the lack of ability of the armed forces to attract right talent have become a cause of serious concern.

A large number of questions have been thrown up as “Is there an anomaly in our organisational climate”? “Is it, that the organisation is unable to address the grievances of our soldiers adequately”? “Does our organisational climate merit a relook and if so, what attributes”? and “How do we manage our organisational stressors”.

Effective leadership in a military organisation can make the difference between victory and defeat in war. Effective Leadership[6] implies a thorough comprehension of any problem, particularly identification of real issues involved, sound assessment of situation, determination of strategy, guiding, planning, directing execution of plan, monitoring and implementation to achieve the desired goal.

SCOPE

This study essentially deals essentially with the attributes of a healthy organisational climate, the organisational climate prevailing within the army, the need to change the same and the role played by effective leadership at the level of Commanding officers and staff officers in mitigating the same.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

Data and information has been collected from books, periodicals, articles from internet and digitised references of Defence Services Staff College Library. Also, inputs in form of questionnaire have been obtained from a diverse section of the environment and compiled. The details are given in bibliography and referred to in the footnotes.

LIMITATIONS

The assessment carried out in the dissertation on basis of compilation of answers to the questionnaire submitted to a diverse military environment may have the following limitations:-

1. Opinions of soldiers may be biased at time.
2. The sample size consists of only 100 amongst approximately 100 Million soldiers of the army.
3. Since Army is very large organisation it was not possible to cover all the branches within this short span.
4. Finding of the study has its own limitations.

ORGANISATION OF DISSERTATION

It is proposed to cover the subject by analysing the following aspects:-

1. Chapter I: What is Organisational Climate and is its impact on an Organisation.
2. Chapter II: Dimensions of Organisational Climate.
3. Chapter III: The Attributes of Enabling Organisational Climate.
4. Chapter IV: Peculiarities of Military Environment; the Military Dysfunctions.
5. Chapter V: Role of Effective Leadership in Enhancing Organisational Climate.
6. The Organisational Climate of a Soldier Assessed and the Way Forward.
7. Conclusion.

CHAPTER I

WHAT IS ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE?

AND IT’S IMPACT ON AN ORGANISATION

Organisational Climate Defined

Organisational climate has proved to be hard to define[7]. When we deal with organisational climate we face two especially intractable and related difficulties:-

1. How to define organisational climate?
2. How to measure it effectively on different levels of analysis?

As per Udai Pareek, an organisation[8] has a structure ( division of work into units, and the interlink ages between units), and develops systems( structured way of managing the major functions of the organisation, like finance, production, personnel, information, relationship with external environment). Each organisation also has norms (accepted patterns of behaviour) and values. Norms and values, and the traditions of the organisation, makes the culture.

The main actors are its top leaders and the persons working in the organisation. All these – the organisational structure, systems, culture, leader’s behaviour, and psychological needs of employees – interact with one another and create Organisational Climate[9].

Organisational Climate is generally perceived[10] or felt by the employees. Thus most often when we talk of organisational climate, we mean perceived organisational climate. Employees may perceive organisational climate as hostile or supportive; as conducive to achieving results or promoting formation of cliques.

Climate for an organization[11] is somewhat like the personality for a person. Just as every individual has a personality that makes each person unique, each organization has an organizational climate that clearly distinguishes its personality from other organization. The organizational policy and conviction with regard to its employees and a cluster of other related activities influence the feelings, attitudes and behaviour of its members and results in the creation of the unique organizational climate.

The content of organizational climate has varied widely and they include almost all the important aspect of organizations such as structure, communication, leadership, conflicts, reward system, inter personal relationships organizational effectiveness, reasonability and so forth.

Conceptual Framework

There are several approaches to the concept of climate, of which two[12] in particular have received substantial patronage:-

1. Cognitive scheme approach.
2. Shared perception approach.

The Cognitive scheme approach regards the concept of climate as an individual perception and cognitive representation of the work environment. From this perspective climate assessments should be conducted at an individual level.

The Shared perception approach emphasizes the importance of shared perceptions as underpinning the notion of climate (Anderson, & West, 1998; Mathisen & Einarsen 2004). Reichers and Schneider (1990) define organisational climate as “the shared perception of the way things are around here” (p.22). It is important to realize that from these two approaches, there is no “best” approach and they actually have a great deal of overlap.

Kaushik Kundu[13] places conceptual framework of Organisational Climate (as per the major earlier studies) under three principal approaches:-

1. Multiple Measurements – Organisational Attribute Approach.
2. Perceptual Measurement – Organisational Attribute Approach.
3. Perceptual Measurement – Individual Attribute Approach.

Multiple Measurements – Organisational Attribute Approach[14]. The most suitable definition of Organizational Climate under this approach was provided by Forehand and Gilmar (1964). They defined Organizational Climate as a set of characteristics that :-

1. Distinguish the organization from the other organizations.
2. Are relatively enduring over time.
3. Influence the behaviour of the people in the organization.

Forehand and Gilmar model of Multiple Measurements – Organisational Attribute Approach can be summarised as below:-

Perceptual Measurements – Organisational Attribute Approach[15]. The organisational climate is defined under a set of four parameters of organisational situations:-

1. Structural properties.
2. Environmental Characteristics.
3. Organisational Climate.
4. Formal Role characteristics.

Further four dimensions of organisational climate were presented as below:-

Perceptual Measurements – Individual Attribute Approach[16]. Schneider and Hall[17] (1972) presented Organisational Climate as a set of global perceptions held by individuals about their organisational environment. This model focuses on the Organisational Climate as the sum total of the individual attributes neglecting the organisational parts. The sets of perceptions are basically the result of interactions between the personal and organisational characteristics. In the previous model the emphasis was on the organisational attributes whereas here the focus is on individual attributes neglecting the organisational parts. The individual is considered as an information processor and the inputs used are:-

1. Objective events and characteristics of an organisation.
2. Characteristics of the perceiver.

Collective Climate: Unison of Approaches

Collective Climate is a unison model developed by Joyce and Slocum (1984). The collective climate is based on:-

1. The perceptions of individuals who share common multidimensional descriptions of their work environment.
2. Consensus amongst work employees of their work settings.
3. Impacts of technology and workforce demographics are accepted.
4. It is the perception of particular organisational practices such as structure, technology and control systems.

The collective climate concept unifies the organisational climate from the organisations point of view and psychological climate based on individual’s perception on organisational practices and procedures. Organisational Climate[19] can therefore be best described as the aggregate perceptions of the characteristics of the organisation.

Impact of Organizational Climate

A high level of organizational climate is necessary for the development of organization. Good climate attracts good and efficient personnel to the organization, who contribute to the productivity of the organization.

Affects Motivation, Productivity and Job Satisfaction. Organizational climate can have a major influence on motivation, productivity and job satisfaction. Employees expect certain rewards, penalties, satisfaction or frustrations based on the organizational climate and their expectations tend to lead to motivation as said in expectancy theory.

Contingency Relationship. There is a contingency relationship between climate and the organization. The climate of an organization is contingent upon the type of employees. The type relate to employees education like technical workers, knowledge workers. For example, research institutes certainly want a climate different from that of a workshop or an office.

Social System. Organizational climate represents the entire social system of a work-group. There are two important dimensions of climate are:-

1. Workplace itself.
2. Leadership provided by the Management.

If employees feel satisfied while at work and if climate provides a sense of personal worth, it can be assumed that in that organization is favourable. Employees expect the management to feel and care about their needs and problems.

Environmental Variables Influencing Organisational Climate

The environment in an organisation consists of the leader, the leader’s followers, superiors, associates, organisation, job demands and other situational followers.

Leader’s Style and Expectations. One of the most important elements of leadership situation is the style of the leader. Leaders develop their style over a period of time from experience, education, and training. Tannenbaum and Schmidt suggest there are at least four internal forces that influence a manager’s leadership style:-

1. Leader’s value system.
2. Confidence in the subordinates.
3. Leadership inclinations.
4. Feeling’s of security in an uncertain situation.

Leader’s value system consists of questions as how strongly the manager feels the individual should have a share in the decision making or to what extent the person paid to assume responsibility should carry the burden of decision making. The strength of these convictions will affect the leadership styles and consequently the environment.

Confidence in subordinates depends on whether that leader believes that people are basically lazy, unreliable or irresponsible or that people can be creative and self motivated in an environment if properly motivated.

The leader may also have his inclinations as following a directive style of command or micro managing issues. Feelings of security in an uncertain situation have a definitive impact on the manager’s willingness to release control over decision making to other people in an uncertain environment. In other words it is that leader’s tolerance for ambiguity.

Follower’s Style and expectations. Followers are regarded as the most crucial element in any organisational climate. Followers are vital because individually they accept or reject the leader and as a group determine what personal power that leader will have. Though leaders may attempt to try to change their follower’s styles, they must adapt temporarily to their followers present behaviour. It is important for leaders to know the expectations that followers have about the way they should behave in certain situations. This is important if leaders are new to their position. Their predecessor’s style is then a powerful influence. Leaders must then change their style or change follower’s expectations. Since leader’s styles have developed over a long period of time it is difficult for them to adapt, therefore it is more appropriate to change the expectations of their followers.

Organisations permit greater freedom to subordinates to operate in cases where the following essential conditions are met[21]:-

1. If employees have a relative high degree of ambiguity.
2. If they are interested in the problem and feel it is important.
3. If they understand and identify with the goals of the organisation.
4. If they have necessary knowledge and experience to deal with the problem.
5. If they have learned to expect to share in decision making.

Superiors Styles and expectations. Another important ingredient in a organisations culture is the leadership style of one’s boss i.e. the leader’s leader. Meeting the superior’s expectations forms a important factor affecting the leaders style. To take a few examples:-

1. If a boss is very task oriented, for example, the leader may expect subordinates to behave in a particular manner.
2. Relationship oriented behaviour may be deemed as inappropriate.

It is important for the leader to know the expectations of his boss particularly if they are to advance in a organisation. If they are predisposed towards promotion, they may tend to adhere to the customs styles and expectations of the group they aspire to join rather than those of their peer group. Consequently, the expectations of boss become more important than other groups, as in followers or associates[22].

Associates Styles and Expectations. A leader’s associates are those individuals who have similar positions within the organisation. For leaders who are satisfied with their present positions, the expectations of their associates may be more important than those of their superiors. An example of this in military can be superseded and reemployed officers, who are more concerned with their peer group, other colleagues or officers rather than be concerned about immediate boss. As a result the commanders or General officer Commanding (GOC) at various levels have little power position over the superseded or reemployed officers.

Organisation’s Style and Expectations. The style of an organisation is determined by its history and tradition, as well as the organisational goals and objectives that reflect the style and expectations of present top management. An organisation much like an individual becomes characterised by certain modes of behaviour that are perceived as its style. This may be referred to as the process of institutionalisation[23]. In this process the, organisation is infused with a system of values that reflects its history and people who have played a vital role in its growth.

Some organisations lay more emphasis on values, honesty, integrity and dynamism as the military while others may hold notion that imaginative, decisive and persuasive leader is more desirable. Still others may lay more emphasis on ability of leader to work effectively with people – human relations skill[24].

The members of an organisation soon become conscious of value system operating within the institution and guide their many actions from expectations derived from these values. The organisations expectations are most often expressed in form of policies, standard operating procedures, and controls as well as informed customs and traditions developed over a period of time.

Other Situational Variables

Job demands. Another important factor contributing to environment of an organisation is the demands of the job that the organisation has been tasked to perform. As per Fiedler [25] the structured task which lays down specific instructions on what the leaders and their subordinates should do requires a different leadership style than an unstructured task with no prescribed standard operating procedure. Highly structure jobs that require directions seem to require high task behaviour, while unstructured jobs that do not need directions seem to favour relationship oriented behaviour.

Time. Another important element in the environment of a leader is the time available for decision making. If a Commanding Officers or commanders office is burst up in flames, he could not seek opinions or suggestions or use other methods of involvement to determine best way to address a situation. Short time demands a task oriented behaviour. On the other hand if time is not at a premium the leader may evolve a different strategy.

External Environment. Organisations are constantly affected by external variables, and the organisations do not exist in a vacuum and are constantly affected by changes in the society. Several events in our day to day life occur which challenge our societies core beliefs and practices. Factors such as quality of working life and its relationship to performance, participation and satisfaction are well known[26].

Changing Situational Variable. It has been noted that it is always easier to change a man’s environment than to change his personality or his style of relating to others. But best strategy would be to change the style of leaders and other situational variables as identified above. The three variables identified for change are:-

1. Leader- Member relations.
2. Position power of the leader.
3. Task structure.

CHAPTER II

DIMENSIONS OF MOTIVATIONAL CLIMATE

An organizational climate can arouse various motives[27] and as per Dr Udai Pareek in his book Organisational Behaviour Process, is primarily affected by six motives and can be characterized by the following concerns:-

1. Achievement. Characterized by concern for excellence, competition with the standards of excellence set by others or by oneself, the setting of challenging goals for oneself, awareness of the hurdles in the way of achie­ving these goals, and persistence in trying alternative paths to one’s goals.
2. Affiliation. Characterized by a concern for establishing and maintaining close, personal relationships, a value of friendship, and a tendency to express one’s emotion.
3. Influence. Characterized by concern with making an impact on others, a desire to make people do what one thinks is right, and an urge to change matters and develop people.
4. Control. Characterised by a concern for orderliness, a desire to be and stay informed, and an urge to monitor and take corrective action when needed.
5. Extension. Characterized by concern for others, interest in super ordinate goals and an urge to be rele­vant and useful to larger groups, including society.
6. Dependence. Characterized by a desire for the help of others in one’s own self-development, checking with significant others (those who are more knowledgeable or have higher status, experts, close associates, etc.), submitting ideas or proposals for approval, having an urge to maintain an “approval” relationship.

Organisational Processes Affecting Climate

Organisational Process is reflected in the way the organisation works. The climate is developed by the organisational processes and these processes can be used to determine organisational climate. Twelve organisational processes[28] as dimensions of organisational climate were identified by Udai Pareek (Organisation Behavior Process). The same have been listed in the succeeding paragraphs.

These dimensions can be used to determine organiza­tional climate and the way these dimensions operate in an organization may indicate the underlying motive of the top leadership, and the motive it is likely to arouse and sustain amongst the members of the organization.

Listing these dimensions and motives, we thus have a matrix or a grid with the 12 dimensions on one axis, and the six motives on the other axis. Such a matrix or grid can be used for diagnosis of the motivational climate of an organization. The overall scores will give a profile of the organizational climate on the six motives.

The twelve organisational processes as dimension of organisational climate as identified by Udai Pareek (Organisation Behavior Process) are[29]:-

1. Orientation. The dominant orientations, characterized by the main concerns of members of the organization, are important determinants of the motivational climate. If the main concern or orientation is to follow laid down rules, the climate will be of one kind (control); if the orientation is to excel and achieve goals, it will be of another kind (achievement).
2. Interpersonal Relations. Interpersonal relations processes are reflected in the way informal groups are formed. If the groups are formed for protecting their own interests, there may be cliques, creating a specific climate (control), as contrasted with another climate if people have informal relationships with their supervisors (depen­dency).
3. Supervision. The supervisory process contributes signifi­cantly to climate formation. If the supervisors help their subordinates to improve personal skills and chances of advancement, their behaviour will develop a climate (extension) different from one in which the supervisors are more concerned about maintaining good relations with their subordinates (affiliation).
4. Managing Problems. Problems can be seen as a challenge, or they can be seen as unnecessary tribulations. Problems can be solved by the supervisor, or jointly with the concerned employee, or can be referred to the higher levels. These different ways contribute to the creation of a climate.
5. Managing Mistakes. The attitude of the supervisor towards mistakes develops employee orientation: one of annoyance, or concern, or tolerance. Again who helps and how in dealing with mistakes influences the climate.
6. Managing Conflicts. The conflicts may be seen as annoying and embarrassing and may be covered, or they may be seen as problems to be solved. The process of dealing with conflicts is equally significant for the climate.
7. Communication. Communication is concerned with the flow of information, its direction (top-down, bottom-up, horizontal), its spread (selective or all concerned), mode (formal or informal), and type (instructions or feedback on state of affairs).
8. Decision Making. What is the main orientation in decision making: maintaining good relations or achie­ving results? Who make the decisions, people high in the hierarchy, or experts, or those who are involved in the matters about which decisions are made? Such questions will be relevant to see how the decision making process creates a particular motivational climate.
9. Trust. Amount or lack of trust amongst various members and groups in the organization is relevant for the climate. Who are trusted more by management is also relevant.
10. Reward Management. What is rewarded in an organization will influence its motivational climate, because what is rewarded reinforces the specific behaviour or orientation, arousing and sustaining a motive.
11. Risk Taking. How people react to risks, whose help is sought in risking situations and how people respond to risks are relevant for the climate.
12. Management of Change. Regarding management of change, the pertinent questions will be who initiates change, how change and innovation are perceived, how change is implemented.

Organisational Climate Evaluated

Organisational climate of an organization can be assessed[30] with the help of various instruments. We take the example of one such instrument as elaborated by Udai Pareek (Organisation Behavior Process).

The instrument is called as Motivational Analysis of organizations (Climate) or MAO (C). It provides a profile score of an organization on six motives as mentioned in paragraph 29 above. The highest two scores are generally taken for interpreting the climate. The highest score shows the dominant climate and the next highest the back-up climate. The combination of the first two motives characterizes the organizational climate.

Combinations of these six motives as dominant and secondary climates give 30 profiles. The nature of the organization varies with each of the 30 profiles. By and large, achievement, expert power, and extension dominant climates are conducive to achievement of results, and control, dependency and affiliation dominant climates retard achievement of results. The 30 profiles as identified by Mr Pareek are:-

1. Achievement-Expert power. People are involved in challen­ging tasks, are highly stimulated by challenges, and the specialists dominate in determining the tasks. The organization rewards specialization.
2. Achievement-Control. Most people are involved in challenging tasks, but they face a lot of constraints because of rigid procedures of the organization, and more inflexible hierarchy.
3. Achievement-Dependency. In spite of emphasis on high achievement, shared by most people, there is a tendency to postpone critical decisions for the approval of a higher autho­rity. The organization discourages making such decisions without approval of the higher level, resulting in a sense of frustration.
4. Achievement-Extension. People work on challenging tasks with equal attention on social relevance of such tasks. The organization has a high sense of social responsibility and also pays attention to the employee needs.
5. Achievement-Affiliation. While people working on challenging goals, they form strong groups based on speciality, department, language, region, etc. The organization, with such in-groups or cliques, pays a lot of attention to maintaining good relations amongst the groups.
6. Expert power-Achievement. The organization pays high value to specialization, and specialists influence most decisions, with emphasis on high quality of work, and unique contributions.
7. Expert power-Control. The organization is controlled by experts with cumbersome procedures, resulting in lack of job satisfaction and not-high output.
8. Expert power-Dependency. An organization dominated by experts, with rigid hierarchy, decisions being passed-up the hierarchical line. Bright employees remain highly dissatisfied.
9. Expert power-Extension. Specialists play the major role in organizational matters, working in a planned way on socially relevant matters. The organization pays attention to the employees’ needs and welfare.
10. Expert power-Affiliation. An expert-dominated organization, with in-groups based on specialties, languages, regions, etc. The organization’s attention is much more on maintaining good friendly climate and usually results suffer.
11. Control-Achievement. The organization is bureaucratic, laying down detailed procedures, with clear hierarchy. The organization emphasizes quality of work, but most employees with achievement orientation get frustrated. Some public sector organizations have this climate.
12. Control-Expert Power. A bureaucratic organization in which specialists’ opinions are valued, but rules are treated as more important.
13. Control-Dependency. A bureaucratic organization with rigid hierarchy, where all actions are referred to levels above for approval, and decisions get delayed. Following rules and proper adherence to regulations are more important than achieving results. The senior persons protect their subordinates who do not make any procedural mistakes. Most government offices function this way.
14. Control-Extension. A hierarchical organization with social concern and paying attention to the needs and welfare of the employees.
15. Control-Affiliation. A hierarchical organization with low concern for results; more emphasis on good relations. However
    

     

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